Laparoscopic or Open Appendectomy for Pediatric Appendicitis?

Background: This study aimed to compare open appendectomy (OA) and laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) in children by analyzing the differences in outcomes between the two techniques. Materials and Methods: This was a single-institution retrospective study. Data were collected from the medical records of all children <15 years of age who underwent an appendectomy from 2006 through 2014. Preoperative parameters, appendicitis severity, surgery time, complications, pain treatment, and postoperative outcome including days of hospital stay were collected. LA was performed with a two- or three-port technique, and a McBurney incision was adopted for OA. Conversions were regarded as OA. Results: A total of 406 appendectomies were performed during the study period, 146 (36%) OA (61 conversions) and 260 (64%) LA. No differences were found between the two groups regarding surgery time, operative and postoperative complications, and postoperative pain treatment. In cases of Phlegmonous appendicitis, LA was associated with a significantly shorter median hospital stay than was OA (1 and 1.8 days, respectively; p < 0.01). Healthy and Phlegmonous appendices were more commonly treated with LA (p < 0.01 for both); gangrenous, perforated, and abscessed appendices were more commonly treated with open surgery (p = 0.02, p < 0.01, and p < 0.01, respectively). Conclusion: The study identified no disadvantages of LA compared with OA. Therefore, LA should be the preferred technique because it is associate

Moderering av grupper på Facebook : - En studie om moderatorers agerande och resonemang kring innehåll i deras Facebookgrupper

Abstract  In Sweden, moderators of Facebook groups are currently required to remove illegal content from their forums according to BBS-lagen. The law is however old and rarely used, and the impact of it’s existence is unclear. The purpose of the essay is to gain understanding on how moderators of Facebook groups think and act on illegal/inappropriate content that is published within their groups, and what impact the current legislation on the subject in Sweden has on their behavior. In order to examine this the following questions was asked:  -       How does moderators of big Facebook groups reason and act on potentially illegal/inappropriate content in their groups?  -       How do moderators of big Facebook groups reason and act on potentially illegal/inappropriate content in their groups, in relation to the law on bulletin board systems (BBS-lagen)?  The theoretical vantage points were the Public Sphere by Habermas and Panopticon by Foucault, to explain the actions of the moderators and the impact of legislation. The methods used were semi-structured qualitative interviews with moderators of Facebook groups, in combination with an analysis on relevant legal documents.  The study found that the majority of the interviewed Facebook moderators had a semi - rigorous moderation approach, where freedom of speech was important, but also second to the wellbeing of the community. The forums had to have some level of surveillance on a regular basis, often following use of the Facebook report function. They were mostly aware of the legislation but did not actively use it as a tool for moderation, they leaned on the group's internal regulations instead.    Keywords: BBS-lagen, democracy online, surveillance, Facebook moderation, illegal conten

Mass Spectrometry and Machine Learning Reveal Determinants of Client Recognition by Antiamyloid Chaperones

The assembly of proteins and peptides into amyloid fibrils is causally linked to serious disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Multiple proteins have been shown to prevent amyloid formation in vitro and in vivo, ranging from highly specific chaperone–client pairs to completely nonspecific binding of aggregation-prone peptides. The underlying interactions remain elusive. Here, we turn to the machine learning–based structure prediction algorithm AlphaFold2 to obtain models for the nonspecific interactions of β-lactoglobulin, transthyretin, or thioredoxin 80 with the model amyloid peptide amyloid β and the highly specific complex between the BRICHOS chaperone domain of C-terminal region of lung surfactant protein C and its polyvaline target. Using a combination of native mass spectrometry (MS) and ion mobility MS, we show that nonspecific chaperoning is driven predominantly by hydrophobic interactions of amyloid β with hydrophobic surfaces in β-lactoglobulin, transthyretin, and thioredoxin 80, and in part regulated by oligomer stability. For C-terminal region of lung surfactant protein C, native MS and hydrogen–deuterium exchange MS reveal that a disordered region recognizes the polyvaline target by forming a complementary β-strand. Hence, we show that AlphaFold2 and MS can yield atomistic models of hard-to-capture protein interactions that reveal different chaperoning mechanisms based on separate ligand properties and may provide possible clues for specific therapeutic intervention

14-3-3 proteins activate Pseudomonas exotoxins-S and -T by chaperoning a hydrophobic surface.

Pseudomonas are a common cause of hospital-acquired infections that may be lethal. ADP-ribosyltransferase activities of Pseudomonas exotoxin-S and -T depend on 14-3-3 proteins inside the host cell. By binding in the 14-3-3 phosphopeptide binding groove, an amphipathic C-terminal helix of ExoS and ExoT has been thought to be crucial for their activation. However, crystal structures of the 14-3-3β:ExoS and -ExoT complexes presented here reveal an extensive hydrophobic interface that is sufficient for complex formation and toxin activation. We show that C-terminally truncated ExoS ADP-ribosyltransferase domain lacking the amphipathic binding motif is active when co-expressed with 14-3-3. Moreover, swapping the amphipathic C-terminus with a fragment from Vibrio Vis toxin creates a 14-3-3 independent toxin that ADP-ribosylates known ExoS targets. Finally, we show that 14-3-3 stabilizes ExoS against thermal aggregation. Together, this indicates that 14-3-3 proteins activate exotoxin ADP-ribosyltransferase domains by chaperoning their hydrophobic surfaces independently of the amphipathic C-terminal segment

14-3-3 proteins activate Pseudomonas exotoxins-S and -T by chaperoning a hydrophobic surface

The cellular toxicity of Pseudomonas exotoxin-S and -T depends on their activation by 14-3-3 but the underlying molecular mechanism is not fully understood. Here, the authors show that a previously unrecognized 14-3-3:exotoxin binding interface is sufficient for complex formation and toxin activation